With two comedy heavyweights Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd Inside, you’d probably expect Apple TV+’s ‘The Shrink Next Door’ to be a laugh-out-loud series, but to be honest with those who approach it with that idea, plain and simple, it’s not. goes beyond expectations by using the two actors to deliver a psychological drama surprisingly dark, even with really disturbing undertones.
While the pilot is only 35 minutes long, as you might expect from a comedy, subsequent episodes stretch to almost 50 minutes as it gets deeper into thriller territory. A mixture of tones that has generated some confusion among critics, but which is not surprising considering that his amazing story is based on real events that became a podcast popular namesake about a case that put a nasty twist on America’s golden age of self-help in the 1970s.
It is in 1982, where we meet Marty (Ferrell), a kind and gentle but hopelessly naive man who runs his family’s fabric store. A quirky guy who gets panic attacks from even a mild confrontation that are usually put down by his sister Phyllis (Kathryn Hahn) until it becomes too much of a problem for her and she suggests she see a therapist, the bearded Dr. Ike. (Rudd), whose mission is to help Marty gain confidence in himself.
A modern emotional vampire
“You let people take advantage of you,” he tells her, almost like a premonition of things to come. And this approach, of course, leaves enough moments of comic style. Impossible not to laugh at Marty’s adult bat mitzvahor when he paints his office with Laura Branigan’s pop hit “Gloria,” with Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd clowning around, but even making an impossible parody of tabletop movies about people walking into other people’s lives, it’s a series more strange and sad than funny.
In a way it’s almost like ‘what?What about Bob?‘ (What About Bob?, 1991) in reverse, with the therapist attached to his patient like a hindrance. Phyllis begins to worry about Ike’s influence as he drives a wedge between the brothers. From that moment we see a slow conquest of the doctor to his patient, invading his life like the ivy that appears in the credit titles, it is an impossible tragedy, with a predator scamming his victimbut managing to be charming at all times.
Ike goes out with Marty outside the office… but then he charges him for that time, he’s a natural born charlatan straight for his friend’s money tricked into trying to achieve a social position that doesn’t belong to him. As he slowly bleeds Marty dry over decades, he pummels his psyche with bullying taunts and guilt by turning everything on its head. At times it is implausible, but the real story isand makes you think that the most manipulative person in the world came together against the most insecure, innocent and vulnerable.
It is a nightmarish scenario that is recreated by elucidating what can happen when you let the wrong people into your life that escapes from the classic midday thriller formula thanks to the excellent performances. Ferrell and Rudd have a strong relationship honed over years of working together. in comedies, and it maintains a carnival approach of glasses, beards and tacky clothes from the early 80s. IF there is a series that breaks with the glamorous image of the decade’s nostalgia, it is this one.
Two actors beyond comedy
It is clear that both actors have had a great time doing the series, part of the comic feel is just that impression, but they actually take their characters very seriously and the caricature is tragicomic, because perhaps such an unlikely story would not have worked with another tone. Rudd perverts his natural charm to define a cynical devil like Ike, showing a surprising menacing vibe when his dark side comes to light.
But the star here is Ferrell not only less over-the-top and ridiculous than usual, but he does some of his best dramatic work as Marty, with kind eyes and a sweet disposition that ends up being chilling until its poignant denouement. Showrunner Georgia Pritchett and director Michael Showalter apply a black comedy sensibility, very very black, with a methodical rhythm, extravagant but always fascinating.
Many may not find any incentive in seeing an adult man being manipulated by a sociopath for seven hours, but ‘The Shrink Next Door’ is a proposal of true crime different, which moves between genres in such an unclassifiable way as ‘A madman at home’ (The Cable Guy, 1996) making plausible a story too convoluted to have been believed in any other way, making Apple is crowned, little by little, as the platform with the most audacious proposals in a saturated fictional scenario and accommodated.